Best Straightway Poems
When through my window flew a tiny bird,
she straightway went to where she chose to roost.
I laughed because it seemed a bit absurd
her perching on my bed post! I deduced
she'd lost her way, but now that she was here,
she seemed at home. She cocked her head at me
as if she had a thing to say. No fear
did she display, no sign that she would flee.
She had the sky and trees. What could she need
inside my little room? Why did she stay?
I offered her, from open hand, a seed.
She bent and pecked at it right where it lay.
The world is huge. . . we're free! Yet what explains
that from my room now pours a bird's sweet strains?
Oct. 11, 2019
For Writing Challenge, October 2019 - Bird - Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Dear Heart - Wiishkobe Ode
I starts me life as pirate,
A grommet before age twelve,
Not an ordinary bandit,
High sea adventures me delve.
With a Letter of Marque in me han’
And the Commodore for me pa!
I spends dogwatch near the helmsman,
Nerey missin’ me bonny ma.
Old salts tell their gory tales,
Aye, dogs hanging from the gallows.
Punishments for a man who fails
Floggings or keelhaul; blood bath follows.
Scrimshaw hangin’ ‘round me neck.
A privateer by trade,
Flaunting booty on the deck
We’s the scallywags brigade.
Pirateering is me heartthrob.
I dreams schemes in the crows nest.
‘bout takin’ swag from an unfortunate swab.
I sits watchin’ pa from the crest.
Long nines aimed and ready,
Jolly Roger on the mainmast,
Headway fast and steady,
The enemy’s fate forecast.
One for all and all for one!
Drinkin’ grog an’ eatin’ grub.
Werkin’ on the “Morning Sun”
Me father at the hub.
Davy Jone’s locker, me final plight!
Death drifting in me beloved sea –
Straightway from the dark of night
The pirate’s life for me!
© July 15, 2010
Dane Smith-Johnsen
G irls giggle and tell secrets. That’s okay!
R ambunctious boys can cause my head to ache.
A ngelic girls are easier to take.
N ight comes. They kneel beside their bed to pray.
D ear little dolls, they go to sleep straightway,
D ress up like princesses when they awake,
A nd nicely play. No trouble do they make.
U nsullied darling little nymphs are they!
G lad news for Grandma having girls again;
H ow nice I need not deal with all the woes!
T wo sisters, Lydia and Natalyn,
E arn hugs and kisses just for being kin.
R eflections of my dreams, and on life goes. . . .
S weet granddaughters let love and laughter in!
An Acrostic Italian Sonnet for
Contest by dakarai cobb:
The Sonnet Man's Acrostic Challenge
I watched, fascinated, as the tall lone boy
in line to ride the Scrambler
stuffed handfuls of peanuts in his mouth.
This was the same boy I had spied just an hour ago
further down the way
where thirteen seemingly ravenous, foolish people
bent their heads to plates, and with hands behind their backs,
plunged their faces into myriads of pies.
He hadn't won the contest but had come rather close;
the nuts he was eating now replaced the pies he'd fed his face.
But telling stains of blueberry and meringue remained
upon the long sleeved shirt.
The line for our ride proceeded at a turtle's pace
till finally we got into our seats.
Secured inside, we waited to begin.
Close by, I saw the boy unbutton
the top of his already loose baggy jeans,
a timely gesture I would say!
Then folks around us howled
as round and round we went.
Perhaps some screams held terror.
Mine held only delight.
And when the ride was finished,
we exited as quickly as we could
though giddy from that sweet rush of adrenaline.
I glanced a final time at that strange lad.
He stooped and sputtered something to the ground:
a few whole peanuts and a couple of blue tinged chunks.
Disgust was worn on the faces of the onlookers around us,
but only I was well aware of all the food
he’d still managed to hold down!
He wiped his mouth on one long sleeve
and stared right back at them;
well, I declare,
he headed straightway toward a fragrant hot dog stand.
.
One sunny, sweet sunflower day,
adventure called. . . I went straightway
across those flowered fields of home
and facing west, began to roam!
When everything behind me lay
that sunny, sweet sunflower day,
gold rays were filtering through trees,
and bluebirds glided on the breeze.
Then dropping seeds along my trail
of history, I learned too well
a sunny, sweet sunflower day
can cease. . . when rains change skies to gray.
Years passed. . . My homeland beckoned me,
and I returned, surprised to see
seeds left now bloomed in bright display
one sunny, sweet sunflower day!
dramatic verse
LORD, your mission I long to fulfill.
I know at times I hinder Your grace.
BELIEVE, You plead. -- I believe until
HELP is put on hold and doubts displace
THOU, God, the one Master of my will
MY deepest need is strength to erase
UNBELIEF -- to wait patiently still.
I need you Savior, LORD, my Surety,
counting it joy when I profess You are mine.
So when I fail to BELIEVE deplorably,
questioning your HELP, asking for signs,
O how very great THOU art, I sing to thee.
In your presence, MY faith I refine
and break off UNBELIEF, infidelity.
Jesus Christ, my unchanging LORD
totally pardons me I know. Once I
made my original choice to BELIEVE,
He’s always been nearby to HELP.
Reprove me, O Holy Spirit, THOU
can remove what I do not need-- MY
self-seeking pride, alas my UNBELIEF.
written 8/16/2014
inspired by:Mark 9:23-24, (when Christ healed the boy of demonic spirits)
23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. 24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
I.
A hundred years of age—a birthday rarely reached;
He never got to fifty, and fifty years are gone
And more. That afternoon the TV set was on—
I wasn’t even five years old—and while we watched
A Fractured Fairy Tale, they broke in with the news
And straightway, all around, the very world waxed sad.
The shock and grief-- the tear-stained face my mother had--
Made clear to me this was no case of common blues,
And that something truly frightful had come to pass.
I didn’t fully comprehend it all, but saw that all
About me seemed to weep, and so I wept as well.
Since then, people forget; the world grieves less and less,
As history careers in its relentless path:
Unsolved equations in some inscrutable math.
II.
I see that day: the brilliant sun, the motorcade,
The crowds, his smile; his sandy hair was flying in
The breeze… then but a moment later, dying in
His lady’s lap. I see it in the films they made
Both then and now-- with eyes not five years old
But sixty: and mourn now, not as I did back then,
But with a comprehensive grasp. The evil men
Have wrought lives on; yet like some story never told,
The good he might have brought to life? Aborted, all:
And all the while we strain to hear some rhyming call,
And strive to hear reason’s trumpets bravely blowing
In vain: and hence I grieve for him anew, now knowing.
Once when we lived way up north where it's real cold in winter,
We had a dog named Leroy, it's him I now remember.
We took him from a real bad home where he was abused and beaten.
The man was going to shoot him for that man was a cretin.
Leroy was a Beagle cross with Doxie or Corgi mixed in.
Whatever was his background it made a real good blend.
He really took to me straightway, became my biggest fan.
My little buddy through and through and I thought he was grand.
He was a funny little guy, he had a thing for cats.
He didn't want to hurt them but adopted them as pets.
My neighbor came to me one day for help with her new kitten.
It wouldn't play games with her dog as would her big cat, Mitten.
I told her that would come in time that she must just be patient.
The kitten had to learn to trust, she couldn't be impatient.
I went over to her house and there to my surprise,
Was Cougar, our big, buff cat with great big amber eyes.
"Cougar! What are you here for? I better take you home!
I'm sorry that he's in your house. He usually doesn't roam."
My neighbor told me, "That's my cat."
"Oh no' I said, 'he's mine."
Leroy looked up at the cat. No doubt was in his mind.
The cat looked down at Leroy. He stiffened in my arms.
How was he to know this dog really meant no harm.
Leroy leaped up off the ground. He barked,"Come on, let's play!"
The cat exploded in a cloud of cat hair, spit and spray.
My chest and arms were bleeding, pee ran down my shirt.
My neighbor looked concerned and said, "Judy, are you hurt?"
"I really thought he was my cat. You'd think there'd be some sign."
My neighbor looked at me and laughed, "I told you he was mine."
The life without you
is like a tree without flowers,
the moon without the stars,
a kiss without lips,
long wandering love,
the weary heart may faint for rest,
and a body without soul...
The life without you
is like a drifting foam of a restless sea
when the waves show their teeth
in the flying breeze,
and wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
The life without you
is like village curs that bark when their fellows do,
a shadow of a great hill,
that reaches far out over the plain,
and the setting of a tropical sun.
The life without you
is like a sea-worm,
that perforates the shell of the mussel,
which straightway closes the wound with a pearl,
and rainbow, thou didst fade.
The life without you
Is like a blossom blown before a breeze,
a white moon drifts before a shimmering sky,
and my memories burn like a living coal in my soul.
By Seth Yuhi Musinga
This poem is inspired by and I guess coud be in conjunction With Andrea Dietrich's wonderful
little poem" Dog that Wears a Cone" so her's should be read first if you have not already!
We once had a Lab, black with white socks,
he was so very loveable, but I'm afraid,
dumber than a box of rocks.
For the third time that "houdini dog" got loose,
and for the third time got a bad case of porky quills.
That dog would often slip his noose.
Took him five days to get home from them hills.
The poor dog limped home almost dead,
Vet filled him with meds,
and stuck a cone on his poor little head!
and for two days he went through all Andrea said.
Then I came home and hurried,
Cause my wife called quite worried.
Seems loveable coneheaded Max acted quite sick,
it had been two days since he got into that fix.
And for two days he had not himself relieved!
We pulled off his cone so he was able to sniff,
and he made straightway for some trees,
he sniffed around and his leg he did lift...
and goodness gracious..how he peed!!!
Matthew 21:2-7
King James Version
2 Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me.
Reread the passage. A man who had never ridden and a colt that had never been ridden.
he tied the donkey
unridden colt, they waited....
a man rode the colt
***Waterfalls***
A river’s passage to rock-walled heights of mountain clifts to no longer find a straightway ahead along more accepting ground but to be soon upset at the sudden edge’s denial of place where
The dynamic current’s bed is sliced away causing the river’s chaos collapse down
Having first started first over Earth-exalted terrain then set hurtling down
The flowing river surging as if in physical angst accelerates flash down
Falling surprised nearly shocked but see how then seemingly gleeful and gleaming from above to below and down
Gurgled splashes in silver streaks thrown shining back up mark the. instants of how storm alarms streamed currents over to down
On down to spiral in a toll of rolling over and over on itself this intent artery having lost shape altering identity from river to falls down
Bottom speeds gyrating wrapping about hunting release to find a new dominion a new level healing ground in another valley of the opening light of life spreading forth…
———————————————————-+—
(c) sally young Eslinger 11/21
Thanks be to God
quatern
The truth stood downcast in the lie;
dismayed she left their home at once.
She'd blathered on about someone
who'd fill her life with what she wants.
Distraught he relinquished his rights,
the truth stood downcast in the lie.
Their last ten years, straightway dismissed;
Though he loved her; divorce loomed nigh.
He sold their house, it held the truth;
depressed, he let go of that dream.
The truth stood downcast in the lie,
things are not always as they seem.
She moved in with love number two;
her demands outgrew his supply.
She’d reckoned his grass was greener,
the truth stood downcast in the lie.
written July 30, 2016
for The Truth Stood Downcast in the lie contest by John Lawless
They said “try it, it takes the pain away”
But what do we gain besides being so cliche?
I’ve seen it all, addiction and failure.
But maybe I just thought addiction was nothing but a fiction and that my failures would come way later.
We slowly fall into this trap that makes us wonder where the hell the map went.
And we won’t end up like our elders, instead we wanna be like the weed sellers.
Hit it a few times and feel the taste of a wonderland, take a seat its time to start crashin'.
And thats one of the many reasons we loved the drugs, they always had us smashin.
They say its not a gateway, but is it leading us in the straightway?
Barely making it a day without some type of high and here we are wondering why.
We’re so wrapped up with this thought of perfection so we end up in the wrong direction.
They tell us to not let ourselves down so we go to town and pay the price but we shoulda thought twice.
You think i’d be cautious from my families mistakes but instead I’m lying on the floor nauseous from the intake.
Mom and dad chose crack but they didn't have the stacks
I remember cutting up fake money for it, promised if i hurried the easter bunny would come soon
Funny though, wasn't even home for Easter, wasn't much of a pleaser
Lost faith in the man upstairs cause praying to him every night for almost 3 years didn't heal my mom and i've wasted way too many tears
Dont get it twisted I still believe, then again I could just be naive.
And thats why I like the high, cause it makes time go by so I can stop reminiscing on the past and dismiss the hurt so i can just get trashed.
I’ll probably go down just like the economy but thats okay i was more into astronomy
Now here I am wondering what happened suffering from slacking.
Light it up looking for an answer, most likely gonna get cancer.
Looking at my life has me speechless, guess its time to pick up the pieces. From now on you can look at me like a fetus.
In the famed halls of tainted justice,
on granite pedestals,
stand carved images of corruption
Sculpted stone countenances,
with etched somber appearances,
pillar levitate in Roman atriums
of grand pall splendor
Wicked dead visages
placed disembodied erect
in the mausoleum corridors
Sullen sepulchre sentries
to the crypt chambers of the living
governance sinful body
Graven images of corruption,
who clashed amongst themselves
in the mirrored days
of their fleshly reflections
In the vapor wisp of a contentious life,
they were united in a singular unjust cause —
to establish blood oppression in sanguine perpetuity
Their unturned heads now peer straightway
down the dark judgment hall,
whose steps lead to the pit of perdition
Bottomless fallen souls ...
vertigo shrieking echoes
silently muffled
inside carved images of corruption